CHINHOYI – A Chinhoyi man who drunkenly paraded a puff adder as neighbours recorded videos on their phones has died after the deadly snake bit him on the leg.
Show Chedu was admitted to Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital on Thursday last week but later succumbed to the snake bite, The Herald reported.
Chedu had caught the snake near his fowl run at Alaska Dolomite near Chinhoyi caves before parading it to his neighbours. Videos posted online showed him smiling while holding the snake just behind its head.
It later bit him on his leg and he was rushed to hospital where doctors valiantly tried to save him.
Neighbours said it was not the first snake that Chedu has caught. They usually turned to him when a snake was seen in the neighbourhood.
“He was drunk and he wasn’t thinking straight when he caught the puff adder. Unfortunately he dropped his guard and it bit him,” said one.
The puffer adder is ranked number seven on the world’s deadliest snakes by Discover Wildlife. It is responsible for more fatalities than any other African snake.
In a disease surveillance report released in October, Zimbabwe’s ministry of health said there were 3,087 snake bites since the beginning of the year which resulted in 15 deaths.
